


Are You Asleep?

by eugeneismyqueen



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Also minor spoilers for season one and two proposals, Confessions, Domestic Fluff, Eugene thinks Rapunzel is asleep, F/M, Fluff, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Love Confessions, New Dream, New Dream Fluff, One Shot, Romantic Fluff, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Sleepy Cuddles, Sleepy fluff, fell down a tiktok rabbit hole that somehow led me to writing this the other night, minor spoilers for Cassandra's Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25118539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eugeneismyqueen/pseuds/eugeneismyqueen
Summary: Eugene has some things on his mind that he wants to say but he isn't ready to tell Rapunzel while she is awake.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 9
Kudos: 71





	Are You Asleep?

“Sunshine?” 

….

“Blondie?”

….

“Rapunzel?”

Eugene whispered his many pet names for Rapunzel and waited a few heartbeats to see if she would shift or respond to his voice. 

“Are you awake?”

Still nothing. He shifted in her bed and studied her for a moment, she had her back to him and the moonlight streamed in through her double doors, bathing her in its soft glow. Eugene brushed some hair off her neck and waited to see if she remained still. She did. 

It had been a hard day. Actually, that was an understatement. It had been a _very_ hard day. On both of them. It was Eugene’s birthday and they had faced off against Cassandra on the grounds of the tower that Rapunzel grew up in. He’d watched her almost die, he’d watched her try and kill Cassandra for his sake, and he caught a glimpse of their future in his engagement ring. But they hadn’t really talked about any of it, because Cass was a hard subject and what she had done today was extreme even for her, and no matter who asked who, it still wasn’t the right time to be engaged. Maybe it was never the right time. 

He glanced at her figure again, he could see her shoulders lift and fall as she breathed peacefully and soundly asleep.

“Rapunzel, I’m gonna tell you something I don’t think I have the guts to say while you’re awake.” He paused, looking to her to confirm it was okay for him to say what was on his mind. 

“When I met you, I was a horrible man. I suppose you already know that. Flynn Rider had a _very_ specific reputation for a reason. But then I climbed your tower and you knocked me out with your frying pan. You’d never met anyone else before, but you were smart and cunning, and maybe scared, too. Who wouldn’t be? But you were brave and focused. You could not be swayed by my smolder—-something that affects my ego to this day, just so you know sweetheart…” he eyeballed her, laying a dramatic hand over his chest. He could imagine her giggles if she were awake listening to him. He could see her rolling her eyes and drawing out the vowels in his name, causing his insides to go goopy, just before she surprised him with a kiss. But she wasn’t awake and he had a lot more to say. 

“I guess where I’m going with this is that you couldn’t be fooled by the facade I built up and hid behind for years. You broke down my walls in _one_ night, when other women I’ve been with couldn’t be bothered. They bought into all the lies I sold them, but you somehow managed to find the good in me. You managed to save _me_ , sweetheart. The me, me. Not Flynn, and maybe not even sad, orphan Eugene. Just me.

“And you know, I fell very madly in love with you for digging Eugene out of the hole Flynn had buried him in. I fell so in love with you that I was ready to marry you on the spot. Like you wouldn’t even believe how hard it was to make myself wait til even your coronation to propose that first time. I guess I just thought that’s how it was supposed to be: you find someone you actually love and if you wanna spend your whole lives together, you get married. Why bother waiting? But it wasn’t the same for you. You didn’t have any boyfriends before me or any clue what real love was…. sometimes at first I even doubted that you actually knew how to love me. I feel so stupid admitting that out loud, even if you’re asleep. Because it was just my brain having to deal with you learning and exploring all the new life around you. I didn’t like having to share you if I’m honest. That was hard for me to get used to. Like, I knew you loved me, but the little shoulder devil I’ve got wanted to fool me otherwise. Wanted to tell me you were just being nice and taking pity on me for bringing you home. 

“And then I proposed. And you said no. And I was even more afraid. And honestly, it’s not your rejection I was scared of. That mostly just confused me. No, Sunshine, it was the fear of losing you that suffocated me. And even though Demanitus helped me find my faith, it doesn’t mean I’m not still scared of losing you from time to time. Losing you tore me apart in Vardaros. I thought you’d give up on me when Stalyan kidnapped me. But you didn’t. I think we both tried to propose that trip. And I think, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you tried to propose to me that night because you were scared of losing me, too.” 

She didn’t correct him, he took this as a sign that he was right. Was this an unfair advantage? Most definitely. Was he bothered? Not particularly. 

“But today, Sunshine. Oh, today. Today was one of those days I was terrified of losing you. My heart stopped when I saw Cass tried to smush you between those rocks. I would have killed her if she so much as broke a single one of your bones. But if she _killed_ you? Oh, sweetheart. That’d be the end for me. But then your amazing, lifesaving, magical hair saved you. And then she tried to hurt you by using me, and okay that was extremely hot. Somehow you glowing and floating are not the weirdest things I’ve ever seen you do. But I kinda like seeing you get protective over me. Like I said, it was hot. I also never guessed anyone would actually care about me enough like that. Not that everyone can do what you do, but I mean even in general. No one has ever cared about me the way you do, not even myself. And I just, I love you for loving me. 

“But at the same time...you have also taught me how to love and respect myself. Like I didn’t use to care particularly how I treated women—I mean I’ve always been great in bed, that’s just a fact, but damn I was a jackass and a real man whore. But then I met you and suddenly I _cared_ about how I was treating you, how I was handling my body around you. I wanted to do right by you, Sunshine. You helped me become a better man because _I wanted to._

“And back to the proposals really. Because you were right, we weren’t ready to be engaged on the night of your coronation. We both had a lot of learning to do. And I mean overall, like ourselves, each other, and the world type learning. And in Varados, we still wouldn’t have gotten engaged for the right reasons. I wanted to ask because I saw our adventure on the road as a new chapter and a fresh start. As a man who grew up on the road, it was familiar and comfortable and I had a bit of my cockiness back, thinking that that’s what we needed to do in order to really be together. But we’ve always been together, you’ve always been the other half of my soul. I never felt whole until I met you. _I love you._ And today, seeing you with a ring for me and knowing you wanted to make it real because we finally have everything, well that feeling has been well worth the wait. And sweetheart, _I think we’re almost ready.”_

Eugene felt emotionally spent after baring his whole heart. So he wrapped his arms around Rapunzel and pulled her close to snuggle. 

Unbeknownst to Eugene, Rapunzel blinked back a few tears and grinned. She’d heard everything and felt entirely the same. As he pulled her in, she let out a feigned sleepy sigh and rolled her head towards his, pretending to crack an eye open. 

“Eugene?” She whispered softly.

He pulled back, surprised a little. “Oh, sorry, sweetheart, did I wake you?” 

She shook her head, keeping the secret to herself. “No, I just like middle of the night cuddles.” She scooted even closer to him, feeling him smile against her hair. His grip around her tightened and she pressed a kiss against his arm tucked under her head like a pillow and the two of them drifted back to sleep.


End file.
